Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years

The Saharo-Arabian Desert is one of the largest biogeographical barriers on Earth, impeding dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, including movements of past hominins. Recent research suggests that this barrier has been in place since at least 11 million years ago<sup>1</sup>. In contrast, fossil evidence from the late Miocene epoch and the Pleistocene epoch suggests the episodic presence within the Saharo-Arabian Desert interior of water-dependent fauna (for example, crocodiles, equids, hippopotamids and proboscideans)<sup>2-6</sup>, sustained by rivers and lakes<sup>7,8</sup> that are largely absent from today's arid landscape. Although numerous humid phases occurred in southern Arabia during the past 1.1 million years<sup>9</sup>, little is known about Arabia's palaeoclimate before this time. Here, based on a climatic record from desert speleothems, we show recurrent humid intervals in the central Arabian interior over the past 8 million years. Precipitation during humid intervals decreased and became more variable over time, as the monsoon's influence weakened, coinciding with enhanced Northern Hemisphere polar ice cover during the Pleistocene. Wetter conditions likely facilitated mammalian dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, with Arabia acting as a key crossroads for continental-scale biogeographic exchanges.

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Journal
Nature
Published
2025-04-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08859-6
Citations
13
Primary Topic
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
16.91
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article

Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years

Mesfer Alqahtani, Monika Markowska, Dominik Fleitmann, James Blinkhorn et al.
13 citations
Nature
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
16.91
article

Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years

Mesfer Alqahtani, Monika Markowska, Dominik Fleitmann, James Blinkhorn, Denis Scholz, Gilbert J. Price, A. Martin, Michael Weber, Axel Gerdes, Paul S. Breeze, Mahmoud Al-Shanti, Michael D. Petraglia, Gerald H. Haug, Eric Andrieux, Alexander Budsky, Nicole Boivin, Richard Clark‐Wilson, Abdullah Alsharekh, Iyad S. Zalmout, Hubert Vonhof, Nils Vanwezer, Mathew Stewart, Yahya S. A. Al-Mufarreh, Samuel L. Nicholson, Huw S. Groucutt, Richard Albert, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Faisal Al‐Jibreen, Nick Drake, Alfredo Martínez‐García, Abdul Aziz Al Omari
article en
13 citations

Abstract

The Saharo-Arabian Desert is one of the largest biogeographical barriers on Earth, impeding dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, including movements of past hominins. Recent research suggests that this barrier has been in place since at least 11 million years ago<sup>1</sup>. In contrast, fossil evidence from the late Miocene epoch and the Pleistocene epoch suggests the episodic presence within the Saharo-Arabian Desert interior of water-dependent fauna (for example, crocodiles, equids, hippopotamids and proboscideans)<sup>2-6</sup>, sustained by rivers and lakes<sup>7,8</sup> that are largely absent from today's arid landscape. Although numerous humid phases occurred in southern Arabia during the past 1.1 million years<sup>9</sup>, little is known about Arabia's palaeoclimate before this time. Here, based on a climatic record from desert speleothems, we show recurrent humid intervals in the central Arabian interior over the past 8 million years. Precipitation during humid intervals decreased and became more variable over time, as the monsoon's influence weakened, coinciding with enhanced Northern Hemisphere polar ice cover during the Pleistocene. Wetter conditions likely facilitated mammalian dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, with Arabia acting as a key crossroads for continental-scale biogeographic exchanges.

NatureVol. 640(8060)
Smithsonian Institution (US), Goethe University Frankfurt (DE), Leibniz University Hannover (DE), Griffith University (AU), United States Geological Survey (US), Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (US), Planetary Science Institute (US), University of Liverpool (GB), The University of Queensland (AU), University of Pittsburgh (US), University of Cologne (DE), King's College London (GB), Royal Holloway University of London (GB), University of Basel (CH), Durham University (GB), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), University of Malta (MT), China Geological Survey (CN), King Saud University (SA), Northumbria University (GB), ETH Zurich (CH), Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (DE), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) (SA), Landesmuseum Kärnten (AT), Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (DE), Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Geological Survey of India (IN)
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Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
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